Hey, Klonny, did you see the NY Times article on Bellows Falls last week? I posted it on "A Propos of Nothing." Just wondering what you thought of the article, and what you think of the apparent Yuppification of the place. Actually, the descriptions make me want to visit, but I'm no Yuppie, so I won't expect to be served any skim soy milk triple-shot macchiatos with room.

And I'm still not sure what a macchiato is. Real Brooklyn Italians don't drink frou-frou drinks. (Gimme a Schlitz, Goombah.)

Trust me, Jude, neither do us B-F'ers, either!
Dawn til mid afternoon, the Falls is a 40-weight, diner-class jamoke town, occasionally subbing some strong iced coffe in high Summer (unless you're growing gills in August, like this year); once the sun's past the yard arm, the village's 5 saloons are up & crankin', and the only ones drinking Juan Valdez's finest after that are the bartenders, the truckers & the cops.
Loved the article though; especially when it got around to quoting Robert McBride, who owns the building I rent for my company's office, and is almost entirely too nice a human being to even be a landlord; imagine a character halfway between Truman Capote at his gentlest, and Thornton Wilder at his most sardonic . . that's our Robert!
Don't you worry about them Yups, though; every 5 or 6 years they make a run at "converting" our quirky little hamlet, but as eccentric and artistic and culture-loving as we genuinely are, this always has been, likely always will be, a working-man's kind of town, with little patience for snobbish dilletantes.
Those we send down-river to Brattleboro!

I like the sound of it. Kinda like Brooklyn As Was (but probably with a different accent).

I'm looking for a place to settle after I retire (soon please, Lord, soon). I'm concerned that I'm not going to be able to afford to live in NYC, the way things seem to be progressing here.

And I prefer Winter to Summer; no Florida Early Bird Specials for me. Besides, I don't look good in a baseball cap or shorts, I hate white sneakers, and I don't like sitting on plastic beach chairs. A warm room with a TV, a stove and a fridge, some good books by mail order, and a few interesting people to talk with now and then; that's all I ask.

Well, move over, 'cause it's on my list, too! Wait a minute.... I HATE winter. Could we move it down south just a little bit? Think anyone would notice? Guess it's Arizona for me!

"Life is not the way it's supposed to be.. It's the way it is.. The way we cope with it, is what makes the difference." ~ Virginia Satir""Most people pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it." ~ Soren Kierkegaard

How about this, Nancy: we could share a cabin in BF for the Spring-Summer-Fall, and then Winter over someplace warm. Being an East Coaster, I hadn't really thought about the Southwest. Can you get sfingi and bagels there?

I don't envision one of those isolated, spartan Unabomber cabins, though -- mine would be more of a Laura Ashley/Martha Stewart/Twinkling Grandma cozy nest, thoroughly unlike the bargain basement/DIY furniture/college dorm-like dump I'm living in now.

jdb1 wrote:How about this, Nancy: we could share a cabin in BF for the Spring-Summer-Fall, and then Winter over someplace warm. Being an East Coaster, I hadn't really thought about the Southwest. Can you get sfingi and bagels there?

I don't envision one of those isolated, spartan Unabomber cabins, though -- mine would be more of a Laura Ashley/Martha Stewart/Twinkling Grandma cozy nest, thoroughly unlike the bargain basement/DIY furniture/college dorm-like dump I'm living in now.

Traditional "cabins" we don't got in B.F. - though a short motor to neighboring towns like Grafton or Chester, or Alstead over in NH will put you smack in the middle of "cabin country".
Nope, residential neighborhood in the Falls are pretty solidly Victorian/Edwardian, having to do with the early railroad magnates who so vastly enriched the town back in the 19th cent. - so much so that even the more "bungalow" style homes are just awash with gables and dormers and pergolas and cupolas.
My home was built in 1851, right in the early heyday of all that empire-making, but is unique in this village for being a Boston Antebellum: no mansard shingling, no widow walks, no scalloped eaves or side-ells, just three storeys of long clean lines, one immense slate roof and 2 front porches long enough for whalers!
Of course, in the Falls, practically every homeowner's got a porch; many, with one on each side of their house, and most of them prettier than mine - but mine are big enough to keilidh on! Trust me, it's not for nothin' that Bellows Falls calls itself The Front Porch Capitol of America!
Of course, prior to my clan, I can't say how often the residents of Valentine House actually partied on the porches, but I can boast that the old manse has housed such overnight guests as Horace Greely, Frederick Douglas, Rudyard Kipling, President Theodore Roosevelt and one Mr. Harry Houdini, aerialist.

I was also interested to see in the Times article that eccentric Wall Street speculator-millionairess-miser Hetty Green spent time in BF, since her husband was a native. Is there anything still extant that commemorates her presence?

Judith, should I pack my bags now??? I agree, no unabombercabin.... as long as there's a fireplace and a front porch...I might be able to over-winter (But somebody else has to go out for groceries and mail)

Klonnie, since Bungalow is my favorite style, and I grew up with a front porch that was the gathering place for all the neighbors.....I'm ready! It sounds like my quirky personality will fit right in....

"Life is not the way it's supposed to be.. It's the way it is.. The way we cope with it, is what makes the difference." ~ Virginia Satir""Most people pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it." ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Remember Gene Wilder in "Young Frankenstein"? He insisted it was "Frahhh-kenstine"

"Life is not the way it's supposed to be.. It's the way it is.. The way we cope with it, is what makes the difference." ~ Virginia Satir""Most people pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it." ~ Soren Kierkegaard

I think the 'CORRECT" pronunciation is thee one chosen by the individual. Of course it doesn't always take
Fred MACmurray was almost always called MICKmurray.
The moguls pronounced their name SKENK, not Shenk
I still hear D trick and ColBERT.
I like Wodehouse Mapledurham pronounced Mum
Very good topic. .... mel

Not too long ago, I was listening to a classic movie podcast (not named to protect the guilty) where the name of Anita Loos was consistently mispronounced as "loose." Back in 1936, Ms. Loos wrote a poem for The Literary Digest in which she lamented that her name was mispronounced "loose" and said it rhymes with "dose."

I got this backed up from Anita's grandnephew Rob Loos, when he stayed at the hotel where I worked at the time. As I was checking him in, he said he was surprised that I pronounced his name correctly! (He hears "loose" a lot, too!) But that has its benefits -- he and his family can always tell the "outsiders" by the way they pronounce the family name, which is Dutch in origin.